TidBITS#682/02-Jun-03
=====================
Enjoy solving crossword puzzles? If so, you'll want to read
Kirk McElhearn's look at crossword puzzles on the Internet.
Also this week, Adam opens a grab bag of wireless networking
hardware and software, Apple reduces the prices of 12-inch and
15-inch PowerBooks, AOL and Microsoft settle an antitrust lawsuit,
iTunes 4.0.1 drops Internet music sharing, Virtual PC advances
to version 6.0.2, and Bare Bones Software celebrates their
10th anniversary!
Topics:
MailBITS/02-Jun-03
Bare Bones Software Celebrates 10th Anniversary
iTunes 4.0.1 Restricts Music Sharing
Wireless Grab Bag: Old Macs, Mac OS X, and More
Crosswords Online: Cruciverbalizing on the Web
Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk/02-Jun-03
Copyright 2003 TidBITS Electronic Publishing. All rights reserved.
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MailBITS/02-Jun-03
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**Apple Quietly Drops PowerBook Prices** -- Just over a month
ago, Apple increased the speed and hard drive size of its iBook
consumer laptop models, keeping the same prices. Today the company
quietly lowered the prices of its 12-inch and 15-inch PowerBook
models by $200 each. The 17-inch PowerBook model, which began
shipping in quantity only weeks ago (unlike the more readily
available 12-inch models, announced at the same time at the
Macworld Expo in January), remains at $3,300. The 12-inch
PowerBook G4 now sells for $1,600 with a Combo drive (CD-RW/
DVD-ROM), or $1,800 with a SuperDrive (CD-RW/DVD-R). The aging
15-inch Titanium PowerBook G4 with Combo drive, 867 MHz G4,
256 MB of memory, and 40 GB hard drive is now $2,000, and the
faster version with 1 GHz G4, 512 MB of memory, 60 GB hard drive,
and SuperDrive sells for $2,600.
We wouldn't be surprised if these price drops herald the coming
release of a 15-inch aluminum PowerBook G4 to match the 12-inch
and 17-inch models, perhaps along with a speed bump for the
existing aluminum models. [MHA]
**Microsoft Settles with AOL for $750 Million** -- Last week,
Microsoft Corporation announced it would pay AOL Time Warner
$750 million as part of a wide-ranging settlement of AOL's
16-month old antitrust lawsuit against the company, ending one
of the most troublesome legal disputes to come in the wake of
the long-running federal antitrust case against Microsoft. The
two companies announced the settlement would put past disputes
behind them, and that they would immediately begin collaborating
on media, technology, and bundling efforts.
The reported terms of the agreement would seem to represent a
substantial victory for Microsoft, while enabling AOL Time Warner
to put the litigation behind them and make a small dent in their
estimated $26 billion corporate debt. Under the settlement,
Microsoft grants AOL a royalty-free, seven-year license to
Microsoft Internet Explorer, and the two companies will work
together to leverage Microsoft media and distribution software
for AOL Time Warner's substantial print, music, and film content.
Microsoft will also begin bundling America Online software with
versions of Windows distributed by some PC manufacturers.
Bottom line: AOL Time Warner gets to put some money in the bank
and will have an easier time deploying its content using Microsoft
technologies. Microsoft gets out from under a difficult antitrust
lawsuit (which would have leveraged the federal finding that
Microsoft engaged in unfair trade practices), probably puts the
final nail in Netscape's coffin, and sets itself up as the gateway
technology to AOL Time Warner's considerable media holdings - a
move which could have substantial implications for Apple's online
media fronts, including QuickTime and the new iTunes Music Store.
[GD]
**Virtual PC 6 Updates** -- In these transition months before
Microsoft takes over the Virtual PC line (see "Microsoft Acquires
Virtual PC" in TidBITS-668_), Connectix isn't sitting still. The
company has released a free Virtual PC 6.0.1 update that fixes
crashing problems on PowerPC G3-based Macs when Virtual PC was
run in full screen mode, addressed issues with Quicken TurboTax
Deluxe, and made minor corrections to the Japanese localization.
Now Connectix has released Virtual PC 6.0.2, another free update,
that fixes an incompatibility between Virtual PC and Apple's
AirPort Extreme card. If you're not using AirPort Extreme, or
not having troubles with Virtual PC on an AirPort Extreme-equipped
Mac, Connectix recommends sticking with the 6.0.1 update. Both
updates are 13.8 MB downloads and are available in English,
French, German, and Japanese localizations. [ACE]
Bare Bones Software Celebrates 10th Anniversary
-----------------------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst
Never let it be said we don't play well with the younger kids.
Despite TidBITS being an official teenager now, Tonya and I
had a great time at the Bare Bones 10th anniversary dinner on
19-May-03 with Rich Siegel, Meredith Taitz, Patrick Woolsey,
and the rest of the Bare Bones crew, along with a few other
guests like Andy "America's 42nd most-beloved industry
personality" Ihnatko and Steve "Mr. IOXperts" Sisak.
Sorry you couldn't all come to the dinner too, but you can enjoy
the rest of the Bare Bones 10th Anniversary Celebration, with a
10 percent discount on any order through 30-Jun-03, a $250 limited
edition BBEdit Anthology that brings together _every_ commercial
release of BBEdit up through the current BBEdit 7.0 (along with
liner notes and bonus tracks), and a $15 10th Anniversary T-shirt
emblazoned with a saying about 3,650 days of saving a part of your
anatomy synonymous with "donkey." (Dratted spam filters!) Want the
collector's edition BBEdit Anthology and T-shirt for free, along
with a BBEdit polo shirt? All you have to do is win the Bare Bones
10th Anniversary Essay Contest, in which you describe how you've
used BBEdit to change the world in 1,000 words or less.
We're proud to have such a fun company sponsoring TidBITS, and
the 10th Anniversary Celebration helped us recover from the
disappointment of learning that the BBEdit Personal Service
pricing option ($250,000 for hand delivery by a Bare Bones
employee in a gorilla suit, unlimited feature additions,
ceremonial breaking of the seal on the CD-ROM, and interpretive
reading of the manual) was only a cruel April Fools prank.
Oh, the letdown! But seriously, congratulations to Bare Bones
for ten years of producing high-quality Mac-only software, and
we're looking forward to another ten.
iTunes 4.0.1 Restricts Music Sharing
------------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst
Only a few weeks after releasing iTunes 4 in conjunction with the
iTunes Music Store, Apple has released iTunes 4.0.1 via Software
Update, rolling in a few bug fixes and steamrolling Internet
sharing of music by restricting sharing to a single subnet on
a local network.
One of the innovative features in iTunes 4 was the capability
to share music with anyone on the Internet; you chose Connect to
Shared Music, entered their IP address, and watched their shared
playlists appear in your playlist pane. Sharing in iTunes 4 was
quite restricted: only five people could connect at once and the
only thing they could do was play music. iTunes didn't make it
easy to reconnect to shared playlists, and people sharing the
music couldn't make playlists from shared songs or copy them
locally... at least within iTunes.
Therein lies the rub - Web sites quickly appeared to let people
publish the fact that they were sharing music, and utilities
popped up to copy shared songs. Some of the sites shut down
quickly after the copying utilities appeared and others obscured
the IP addresses of the sharing sites, but neither that nor
the five-user restriction was enough. The copying utilities
were too concerning for Apple, particularly given the music
industry relationships necessary to make the iTunes Music Store
happen, so the Internet sharing feature had to go. (It's easy
to imagine a record label executive calling Steve Jobs and telling
him that unless copying via iTunes was stopped, the necessary
contracts for the iTunes Music Store wouldn't be renewed when
they expire in a year.)
What's most unfortunate about this move is that plenty of
legitimate uses were also eliminated, such as sharing your own
music between work and home or sharing between different subnets
on your local network. I'd like to see Apple refine these
restrictions so, for instance, you could share music with any
computer you've authorized to play songs you've purchased on the
iTunes Music Store, no matter where it's located. In the meantime,
those who want to share music in legitimate situations that are
no longer possible can revert to previous methods, such as using
standard file sharing to publish the contents of the iTunes Music
folder. Of course, there's no reason you must upgrade to iTunes
4.0.1 right now, although I wouldn't be surprised to see the next
version of Mac OS X require an upgrade.
Wireless Grab Bag: Old Macs, Mac OS X, and More
-----------------------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst
I've been collecting bits and pieces of interest to wireless
network users for a while now, and have come up with information
about connecting older Macs - in either Mac OS 9 or Mac OS X - to
wireless networks, ways of improving wireless reception for the
Titanium PowerBook G4, instructions on how to dissect an AirPort
Extreme Base Station, and a speed-enhancing product of which every
wireless network user should be aware.
**Non-AirPort Adapters** -- Owners of older Macs that don't accept
AirPort cards have had to work hard to find appropriate wireless
network adapters: PC Cards for older PowerBooks, PCI cards for
older Power Macs, and USB adapters for older iMacs. Only a few
vendors, such as Asante, MacWireless, and Belkin, make network
adapters with Mac OS 9 drivers, and even fewer offer drivers for
Mac OS X (though admittedly, those older machines are less likely
to be running Mac OS X than AirPort-capable Macs). But what if you
want to put an older Mac running either Mac OS 9 or Mac OS X on
your wireless network?
For PC Cards, you have a few options. For $80 there's the Asante
AeroLAN AL1211-DP, which has drivers for both Mac OS 9 and Mac OS
X. The $90 MacWireless 100 milliwatt 802.11b PC Card also now has
drivers for Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X. Or, if you already have another
PC Card, you can buy a $20 driver from IOXperts for Mac OS 9 and
Mac OS X that works with a slew of different PC Cards. And then
there's a free open source driver for Mac OS X that works with a
number of PC Cards, but which hasn't been updated in over a year.
USB adapters are trickier; the only one I've found that offers
a Mac OS X driver comes from Belkin, for their $75 Wireless USB
Network Adapter. For Mac OS 9 support, MacWireless also offers a
$100 USB wireless network adapter and plans to release a Mac OS X
driver in the third or fourth quarter of 2003.
I'm not aware of any PCI card wireless network adapters that have
Mac OS X drivers, so if you need to go beyond Mac OS 9 with an
older desktop Mac, you'll need to look elsewhere. MacWireless does
offer a 100 milliwatt PCI card (which offers better range than
their USB network adapter), but they've said there are no plans
for Mac OS X drivers.
The best solution may in fact be a $100 Linksys WET11 (11 Mbps,
802.11b) or the just-released $170 WET54G (54 Mbps, 802.11g)
wireless-to-Ethernet bridge, which lets any Ethernet-capable
device exist on a wireless network. Just plug one into your Mac's
Ethernet port, configure it with your Web browser, and you can be
up and running in Mac OS 9 or Mac OS X - no drivers required. The
WET11 worked fine for connecting a Mac to my wireless network,
though I wasn't able to get it to work with an AsanteTalk Ethernet
to LocalTalk Adapter and my LaserWriter Select 360, perhaps
because the WET11 doesn't support AppleTalk.
**External Antennas for TiBooks** -- Tired of lousy wireless
reception with your Titanium PowerBook G4? One interesting new
solution comes from QuickerTek in the form of a replacement
antenna that connects to your existing AirPort card. QuickerTek
offers two antennas, a $50 stub antenna that sticks out of your
PC Card slot and a $90 whip antenna that connects with velcro
to the outside of your PowerBook's case. Neither require permanent
modifications, and for many people, having an external antenna may
far outweigh the annoyance of not being able to connect to nearby
wireless networks.
**MacWireless AirPort Card Trade-In** -- If you don't want to try
the QuickerTek antenna for extending the range of your Titanium
PowerBook G4, another alternative is to purchase a separate PC
Card and install it in your PC Card slot. MacWireless's $90 100
milliwatt PC Card should provide above average range (many cards
are only 30 milliwatts) and MacWireless will also take your
existing AirPort card as a trade-in for $30, bringing the price
of their 100 milliwatt PC Card to $60. You could probably get
more for your AirPort card by selling it on eBay, where they seem
to go for $50 to $70, but that's more work than just sending it
to MacWireless.
**AirPort Extreme Base Station Dissection** -- For those
inveterate tinkerers out there, Constantin von Wentzel has posted
a detailed description of his dissection of the new AirPort
Extreme Base Station. For the moment, I don't know of any reason
why you'd want to do this, but disassembling older AirPort Base
Stations came in handy for adding external antennas, fixing blown
capacitors, and cannibalizing the internal PC Card.
**Wi-Fi Speed Spray** -- Lastly, if you're jealous of people with
new PowerBooks and AirPort Extreme Base Stations, never fear,
because there's a way you can speed up your old wireless network.
Requiring only complete gullibility, Wi-Fi Speed Spray promises
to eliminate the harsh conditions that slow down radio waves in
polluted environments. It's of course a complete joke, but well
worth a read. Pay close attention to the testimonials!
PayBITS: If Adam's pointers to unusual wireless devices were a
help, why not buy a copy of The Wireless Networking Starter Kit?
Read more about PayBITS:
Crosswords Online: Cruciverbalizing on the Web
----------------------------------------------
by Kirk McElhearn
Many things can be converted into bits and transferred over
the Internet, which is one reason why small pockets of special
interests, hobbies, and pastimes flourish on the Web. One such
interest is that of cruciverbalists, or crossword puzzle solvers.
It may come as a surprise to the uninitiated, but not only has the
passion for crossword puzzles flourished in recent years thanks
to the Internet, but it's one of the few areas where content
providers are actually making money.
The crossword puzzle was invented in 1913, and the first puzzle
was published in the New York Sunday World. In the 90 years since
then, little has changed - sure, new types of crosswords were
invented, and they swept the world (at least parts of the world -
there are no crosswords in Chinese), but the fundamental structure
and usage of the crossword puzzle remained essentially the same
until puzzles hit the Internet.
The Internet has of course provided increased availability of
crossword puzzles, but crossword constructors have also used the
medium to develop contacts and work together. On 13-Jun-99, Will
Shortz, the New York Times crossword puzzle editor, even published
a cryptic crossword that had been created jointly on a Usenet
newsgroup by more than 40 people living on five continents.
Crossword puzzle constructor Will Johnston says that, thanks to
the Internet, "we are getting more quality puzzles per day, and
constructors have more places to submit than before."
**Big Apple Paper: 15 Letters** -- For most American
cruciverbalists, the New York Times crossword puzzles are the
benchmark for quality, difficulty, and just plain trickery.
Progressing in difficulty as the week moves ahead, they offer a
range of puzzles that few other publications can provide. The New
York Times made an early step into paid Internet content when they
started offering their Premium Crosswords via their Web site in
1996. (Free registration with the New York Times is required to
access the page below.)
The Premium Crosswords service includes the daily and Sunday
puzzles, bimonthly acrostics, additional cryptic crosswords
and special puzzles, and more than 2,000 archived puzzles
dating to 1996. And as a testament to how attractive it is to
cruciverbalists everywhere, the New York Times has managed to
parlay this service into a profitable venture. Today, some
40,000 crossword puzzle fanatics pay $35 a year to access the
service (the price just went up from $20 per year in April;
when the service first began it cost $10 per month).
Will Shortz says he is "proud and honored" at this success and
adds, "The fact that tens of thousands of people would pay for the
Times crossword (when it's available free with the newspaper) is
proof of its popularity and validation of its quality." Of course,
many of the subscribers to the Premium Crosswords service don't
buy the New York Times, or live in areas where it is not readily
available.
The New York Times Web site also has a forum for crossword puzzle
fans, who discuss the daily puzzles and converse about other
puzzle-related topics. Some of the foremost puzzle constructors
contribute to this forum, and the community that has grown around
these puzzles is solid and quite eclectic.
There are many other Web sites and pages about crossword puzzles,
with links or collections of downloadable puzzles. Crossword
constructor Ray Hamel has the most comprehensive Web page with
links to puzzles, puzzle resources, software and articles about
puzzling.
**Beverage for Puzzle Solving: Four Letters** -- Some puzzle sites
offer Java interfaces to solve puzzles. The New York Times even
provides several ways to solve puzzles using its Java applets: you
can solve against the clock, with the ten fastest times displayed;
you can solve with a friend, helping each other out; and you will
soon be able to solve in head-to-head competition with others.
My experience with these Java applets is mixed - in some cases
they work well, whereas in others they work partly or not at all.
Browser choice matters too; some Java applets work fine in
Internet Explorer, but don't even load in Safari. The New York
Times acrostic puzzles don't work at all under Mac OS X, though
other puzzlers report that they work fine under Mac OS 9.2; this
may be a temporary problem with Apple's Java implementation, which
is usually much better in Mac OS X.
You can also download crossword puzzles from the Internet in two
formats: PDF files you can print out and solve on paper, or .puz
files, which are used by several programs available for the Mac
and other platforms. These .puz files contain information defining
the grid layout, the clues and the answers, and enable you to
solve crosswords on-screen with special software. The New York
Times and many other puzzle sites, including other major
newspapers such as The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times,
use the .puz format, so it has become the de facto standard.
Puzzles in the .puz format either come with solutions in the file
or let you "unscramble" the solution (if you use Across Lite,
described below) the next day by entering a four-digit code. You
can then check the entire puzzle, individual words or letters to
see if they are correct, and, if you get stuck, display the
solution for a letter or word, or for the entire puzzle.
**Common Mac Puzzle Program: Two Words** -- The most widely used
program for solving .puz crosswords is Across Lite, which is
available for almost a dozen platforms, including the Mac,
Windows, Linux, Solaris, and several others. The Macintosh version
is available for both 68K- and PowerPC-based Macs, and runs in
System 7 on up. The Mac OS X version is, for now, available only
to subscribers to the New York Times Web site. Other versions are
available for free from the developer, Litsoft.
Across Lite does what it is designed for very well. When you open
a puzzle, it selects the first answer and displays the clue at the
top of the window, as well as in a list at the side. (There are
many display options so you can choose the type of layout you
prefer.) Type the letters of the answer, and then press the Tab
key to move to the next answer. You can change direction (from
across to down, or vice versa) using the arrow keys. Clicking
anywhere in the puzzle makes the square you clicked active, and
displays its clue.
Across Lite also offers excellent printing options, such as
allowing you to choose whether the puzzle and clues print on one
page or two. Many solvers prefer using a pencil and paper, and
Across Lite is a good program for printing crosswords if you
don't want to do them on screen.
However, Across Lite is quirky. Menu items often don't function
properly, though clicking in the grid can cause recalcitrant menu
items to work when chosen. This is annoying, and one can hope that
future versions will work correctly. In addition, you can't open
.puz files with Across Lite in Mac OS X by double-clicking them;
the Open With association doesn't stick, no matter how many times
you try to set it. So you must use the Open button or menu item
to open puzzle files.
The other Macintosh program that can .puz files is MacXword, a
Mac OS X-native program that offers many of the same functions as
Across Lite. It is $15 shareware and lets you solve puzzles in the
same way, but it lacks some of Across Lite's layout and printing
flexibility. Another drawback is that MacXword can't unscramble
puzzles whose solution is protected by a code, as is true for the
New York Times puzzles.
But MacXword is more Mac-like, has a cleaner interface, and all
its menu items work. It also offers a nifty feature for solvers,
like myself, who can't find all the answers. Selecting OneAcross
Lookup from the Solution menu opens a dialog containing
information on the clue and the number of letters the answer
contains. Click OK, and it sends this information to the One
Across Web site, which is a kind of online crossword puzzle
dictionary. Die-hard puzzlers may think this is cheating,
but it helps me find some of those obscure words that would
otherwise prevent me from finishing puzzles.
Similarly useful for Mac OS X users is the $25 shareware program
Crossword Assistant, which helps you find words when you already
have a few of the letters. For example, if one word in a puzzle is
"tidbits", and you have the second, fourth and fifth letters from
words that cross the answer, type "- i - b i - -" in Crossword
Assistant's text field. The bottom section of its window then
displays all the matches in its 150,000-word dictionary, allowing
you to find the word that fits the clue. Registered users receive
another dictionary with an additional 165,000 words, and you can
add your own dictionaries or word lists to the program. Crossword
Assistant can also help you solve anagrams by presenting all the
words that match the letters you input.
**Gett-ng Y--r D-ily F-x** -- Thanks to being able to access the
New York Times crosswords online, I've acquired the habit of doing
a puzzle when I start work every morning. With a steaming pot of
tea by my side and my iBook in front of me, nothing gets my mind
ready for the day ahead like the mental stimulation of a crossword
puzzle. In the past I would have to wait for the newspaper to
arrive, or ration puzzles from previous days' papers. But now,
I just go to the New York Times Web site and download the day's
puzzle. I still can't solve them all, but the challenge is just
a click away.
Not all crosswords cost money, and both Ray Hamel's page mentioned
above and a page maintained by constructor Will Johnston offer
links to the main crossword puzzle sites available on the Web,
both subscription-based services and free puzzles.
So, for a reasonable cost, or even for free, cruciverbalists can
have their daily fix, and solve crossword puzzles either onscreen
or on paper. It may seem like a niche market, and it is, but the
advantages provided by the Internet allow it to turn a tidy
profit, something relatively few other types of content have
accomplished.
[Kirk McElhearn is a freelance writer and translator living in
a village in the French Alps. He is currently working on a book
entitled Unix for Mac OS X: Learning the Command Line, to be
published by Addison-Wesley in September 2003.]
PayBITS: Did this article turn you into a cruciverbalist?
Consider thanking Kirk with a few bucks via PayPal!
Read more about PayBITS:
Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk/02-Jun-03
------------------------------------
by TidBITS Staff
**Classical music for the digital lifestyle** -- Annoyed at how
the digital lifestyle seems to favor rock and pop over classical
music? So are some TidBITS Talk readers, and Greg Sigman's
manifesto may be the seed of a future article about the problem
and how to fix it. (4 messages)
**iTrip and other FM transmitters** -- In our last issue, Travis
Butler looked at three FM transmitters that work with the iPod,
but there are others that readers both asked about and commented
on. Read this if you're considering buying an FM transmitter.
(12 messages)
**Other options for playing MP3s in your car** -- Of course, an FM
transmitter isn't the only way to play MP3s in your car, and this
thread offers some additional suggestions. (3 messages)
**FCC and Media Consolidation** -- Views on either side of the
FCC's vote today to relax restrictions on media ownership.
(4 messages)
**Identifying spyware** -- Worried about programs that report on
your behavior to software companies? This thread offers some
suggestions about how to find out if a program is phoning home
with information you don't want to share. (5 messages)
**Outliners and super-outliners** -- Matt Neuburg's articles about
text utilities like NoteTaker prompted this discussion of what an
outliner should and should not do. (6 messages)
$$
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